Wait a min! You call this a 4T?
It's almost another 4S with the take off technique there
In the Rostelecom Cup 2021
the men's champion, Morisi's questionable 4T jumping technique came into the spotlight
many fans rush in to give this new jump a new name
something like "ToeSal", "Saltoe",
"Sal No Toe", Saloop?!
and that, my friend, is how a figure skating jump's names were invented
the whole blade leaving the ice there
if you are new to this figure skating 'hoo-ha', it's hard enough to differentiate different jumps
let alone distinguishing the jumps with the so-called "wrong techniques"
there are plenty of figure skating videos and channels out there focusing on analyzing the jump executed perfectly or wrongly
I gotta admit some were toxic!
done with super sarcastic tones!
but some were indeed educational without any ill intent!
you can agree or disagree with those videos
but if you miss out on all these jumping terms, you miss half the fun of watching skating
so in this video, we decided to introduce all the terms invented by fans for the questionable jumping techniques
no criticism intended
just for education I promise!
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Top 6 figure skating questionable jumps to watch
6 - Lutz vs Flutz
Lutz is the highest value "Toe" jump
what makes it hard is the counter rotational moves entering into the jump
you will see the skaters turning clockwise getting into the backward outside edge position
and use the right "Toe Pick" to vault their body up and start rotating anti-clockwise in the air
So Lutz take off using outside edge! Remember that!
another jump with similar takeoff mechanism is a Flip jump, except it's taking off using inside edge
we will come to Flip later
but when executing the Lutz,
some skaters would start rotating their body anti-clockwise prior to taking off
which changes their takeoff edge from outside to inside edge
and thereby gaining the little pre-rotation on ice
this is considered a cheated jump
and so people started calling it the "Flutz" = Flip + Lutz
get it now?
so Flutz is a serious mistake
grade of execution will be deducted according to the judging protocols
Mao Asada was one of the skaters who suffered the most for this call
she openly admitted she had problem with her Lutz,
changed her coach, relearned the jumping techniques
but still, she would get called for the wrong edge take off from time to time
In contrast, her main competitor, Yuna Kim was well known as the textbook jumper for Lutz
With mainly the textbook perfect 3Lz, Yuna Kim broke the 150 points barrier for women's free skate in the 2010 winter Olympics
a figures skating world record held for the longest time ever!
even Yuna couldn't beat that record again herself!
until Evgenia Medvedeva broke her world record in the 2016 World Championships
which opened the floodgate of Yuna fans, coming out to point out Zhenya's Flutz issue
Beautiful 3Lz with the arms over her head
and why she didn't deserve to be the one who broke Yuna's record!
However, some fans jumped into Zhenya's defense
and pointed out that many champions in the past have the Flutz issues as well
and that she shouldn't be solely targeted for that flaw
let's not jump into the fan war here
(Some fans still couldn't agree that Tara Lipinski won over Michelle Kwan in 1998 Olympics with her Flutz jumps)
and let's think constructively!
Yuzuru Hanyu, another well-known textbook Lutz jumper, wrote that in his thesis
Judging is always different from competition to competition because it relies solely on the technical referee
the referee can only see the jumps from one direction
some choreographers would make use of this loophole and choreograph the jumps at the referee's blind spot
Well done spilling the beans, Yuzu!
So what other juicy tea did he spill in this thesis?
Let's get to the..
5 - Lutz vs Loopz
in Hanyu's thesis, he used physics to explain the different forces used for toe jumps versus edge jumps
Check out that video if you haven't
then he also covered the topic on pre-rotations, where the skater's utilizing the full blade instead of toe pick to thrust up on the ice
making the Lutz look like a Loop jump
let's see how the Italian commentator explained this
After the "Toe pick" kick the ice
His foot stayed on the ice and turn
Technically this isn't a Lutz jump
This is a Loop jump instead
Because he didn't take off from Toe pick but from the edges
so some fans started calling this jump "The Loopz"
Loop + Lutz = Loopz, get it?
well at least they are still using the outside edge for the Loopz
what if some skaters have both the Flutz and loopz issue?
let's go to the..
4 - Lutz vs Floopz
when a Lutz is performed with the inside edge, it is called the Flutz by fans
so when the skater used full blade to thrust up like the Loop
some fans started calling this a "Floopz" = Flutz + Loopz. Get it?
Okay! I got it
wait!
what about the Flip executed with full blade assist then?
which brings us into..
3 - Flip vs Floop
so yes! same goes to Flip jump!
when performing with full blade assisted technique, fans call this a Floop = Flip + Loop, without the z at the end
a lot of 4F jumpers like Anna Shcherbakova, Shoma Uno and Vincent Zhou are always subjected to fans criticism for this jump
some fans adore Nathan Chen and Alexandra Trusova
because they have the relatively clean Toe jump techniques with minimal pre-rotation
They are called the powerful jumpers!
I mean, look at Sasha's 4F take off!
full of difficult transitions and as easy as you'd like!
so why do skaters use full blade instead of toe pick?
again, read Hanyu's thesis!
If the inertia of motion alone couldn't help you to land QUAD, let's hope the centrifugal force helps you get there!
To be frank, these flaws are only visible when you use a super slow-mo
something the judges won't do during judging
since they are not penalized for that, some skating clubs make use of the loophole and promote this full-blade assisted take-off technique
another tea spilled in Hanyu's thesis!
Honestly, imagine this!
if you figure out a way to work less and get the full credits, would you not do it?
So if you are not happy, target the judging system! not the skaters please!
Despite all these technical imperfections, let's not forget that what they are doing is still incredibly difficult
almost at a superhuman level!
people questioned her..
but don't!
well you can question their techniques, but at least you can still observe clear Toe Pick from the skaters
the next one, the "Toe Pick" is barely visible at all
which brings us into..
2 - Toeloop vs Saltoe
what got the fans outraged about Morisi's jumping techniques is that
he barely even raised his foot to plant his Toepick for the jump
in this video, you can see there is barely any difference between his 4T and 4S
without slow-mo, you wouldn't even observe the "Toe pick" planted there
and according to the judging guide, judges cannot watch the jump in slow-mo
so fans questioned if judges could really tell the difference when he executed that 4S and 4T together?
one more thing to think about!
1 - FLIP vs LIP
Flip is the second highest value toe jump
why is the jump named the Flip?
let's put it this way! this is the same take off for backflip on ice as well!
it's considered slightly easier than Lutz
because it doesn't have the counter rotational moves prior to taking off
skaters normally enter into the jump with three turns or a mohawk turn
side note: my all-time favorite is always the twizzle entry into Flip jump by Yuzuru Hanyu
no one else uses this entry and it's the most beautiful entry for Flip in the world
A relatively easy 3F, basically camouflaged within the choreography
Flip takes off almost the same like the Lutz to the untrained eyes
the only difference is the edge
Lutz uses the outside edge; Flip uses the inside edge to take off!
some skaters are too used to the Lutz jump
and they over rotate their body, taking off from the outside edge instead!
so that's called a LIP - Flip -> Lutz
it is penalized the same as Flutz but it's actually two different kind of mistakes
Flutz is pre-rotation; LIP is over rotation
so it's not hard to guess
this mistake happened often to the textbook Lutz jumpers like Yuna Kim and Yuzuru Hanyu
in the early days, Yuna Kim's 3F was called for wrong edge take off as well
so some fans also called out the judges for favoring Yuna Kim over her LIP mistake
What?!
Yup! fans' war never end!
and Yuzuru Hanyu was also subjected to a lot of LIP call in the past
in his own thesis,
he used his own LIP to portray how the motion graphic capture could help detecting wrong edge take off
In this diagram, you can see his 1F was done with the correct inside edge
but his 3F was executed with the wrong outside edge
it took him a lot of focus and effort to correct the edge violation
so you will see it's actually quite hard to get the correct edge all the time for the Flip and Lutz jumps!
even for the best textbook jumpers!
the difficulty, again, is about whether the judging is fair
which is a never-ending probe when humans are involved!
Alright, that's it for our video today!
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